Cohabitation

I find my pleasure in the smallest things:

The way you cuddle into blankets often;

How every time your silenced cellphone rings

You panic; how your eyes begin to soften

The moment that our daughter reaches out;

The way you smile, both when you are posed

(A false facade infused with your self-doubt)

And when you mean it (wide and unenclosed);

The different ways you walk, depending on

Whether you feel happy or are stressed;

How you will pout when all the coffee's gone

Then brighten when I hand you all the rest.

These moments are my treasure, and I hoard 'em

Even when you think I might die of boredom.

Second Wave

It shouldn't be that fucking hard

To wear your goddamn masks. We all

Should be upon our fucking guard

For any way that we can stall

The spread of Covid. If you are

Incapable of doing that

Your sympathy must be subpar:

You wear your shoes, your pants, your hat

Outside; when it is raining you

Do not just sit there and get wet

So if there's something you can do

To stop the virus, why forget?

Or if it's not forgetfulness

But purpose--then you're just worthless.

Assurance

I worry there will be a coup

I worry one's already here;

I do not know what we will do

When they deny what is so clear.

The course that we will have to steer

Is one we never wished to sail

It shoals with prejudice and fear

Which we must pass untouched, or fail.

I worry it will not avail;

That what we do will not succeed

I want to rant, and weep, and rail

To pass from poem into screed.

But calm alone will help us now

And so I must be calm somehow.

Voter Fraud

Did anybody really think Bill Barr

Would have enough integrity to stop

His boss's madness? And yet here we are.

He doesn't have the honesty to drop

The trumped up charges of election fraud

Or even to ignore them; no, he joins

As if his Caesar were a very god

Whose face was rendered onto Roman coins.

Of course, if there were true misplay at work

We should investigate it; but be sure

The implications of that, he will shirk,

As if one vote could be declared impure

While all the others on the ballot stand:

A legalistic coup is now at hand.